Planning an annual turf program in January gives you the time to think about effectively using the time that you have with products that do what you need that you can afford and still make a profit. Having an organized plan gives you goals over time periods, and unifies procedures so you are not scattered with too many different things to do. It also gives you time in winter to query a variety of sales people to find out the new year's product availability and cost, so that you can plan ahead and get the best deal. Lastly, you can quantify that amounts of nutrients you are putting on per year, and how much monthly.
An MS Word table turf program enables you to resave and modify it for each year, putting it into a new folder for that year. That way you can always review what you did in the past to improve. Then print and carry with you to stay on target.

April 1-20:
• Harrells 12-0-4 CR40% XCU .17 Dimension will give your customers a nice lawn with no annuals, not too much mowing, nor detrimental spring growth. It is a nice, quality product.

May 1-31:
• Spraying weeds at this time works well for you because you have the time, and your customers have dandelions at this time they want eradicated. Granted, fall spraying is more desirable, but you already have things to do then, and fall seeding cannot be done while spraying. Surge or Battleship are effective in May and a foliar can be tank mixed to add color. Foliar can be Helena Turf Nectar 15-0-0 6% Iron, Plant Food 6 Iron, or Plant Food 17-2-7. Applying chelated iron is strategic to color. Liquid Accelypryn could be applied with this app.

June 1:
• Naturesafe 10-2-8 is nice organic of processed poultry manure that is much cleaner and more effective than Milorganite. PCU's include Anderson's Extend (Poly S), Shaw's N4, N6, and Harrell's Polyon which all make good 3 month summer ferts.

July - August:
• Clean lube your spreader sprayer – get it ready for action. Get your core puller ready for action – engine and tines. Get your slit seeder ready – blades and engine. Service your mowers. See customers for fall apps. Apply summer ferts only.

Sept 1:
• slit or over seed as fall seeding works best (pull cores over top of seed). Use turf type tall fescue – have a supplier who keeps it on hand. You don't want to stock it because of mice. There are blends of TTTF with rye or blue, so you can consider these. Rye will offer quick fill in and will spread between TTTF, which does not spread. New ryes are improved in color and are stronger, resistant than old ryes, the best on being CSI rye. Hence, a TTTF w/rye is a good lawn solution. Cost should be around 60-80 bucks a bag. Turfventures has their own blend of TTTF/rye blended at National which is a stock item for them.

Sept 1- Oct 1:
• Using a fertilizer with some phosphorus at this time supports your fall seeding, and putting on potassium at this time is strategic. Potassium is a vitamin that makes turf stronger, better and supports rooting. K makes cell walls thicker. Applying K on sports fields is strategic.

Oct 1 – Nov 1:
• Ammonium Sulfate 21-0-0 24% Sulfur is a low cost fert that gets great results on northern Indiana lawns and is a low cost product (13-15 bucks a bag). N at this time goes to roots for winter storage. Sulfur as a secondary nutrient is strategic at this time making turf stronger, better color, more disease resistant. You'll see this in the turf. You can always add a second app of AMS on up to Thanksgiving on lawns that need it. This will give lawns a great start in spring. The low bag cost gives you profit and results! AMS can only be applied when cool and moist.

Oct 1-Nov 25:
• Core pull – essential to thicken up/lush lawn. March is also good for core pulling as the weather permits. Fall core pulling is more effective, so set it first. Pulling more cores better than less – anybody can learn to do this. Putting holes in turf at this time allows water to enter and freeze, then breaking up hardness of soil more which will result in a better turf stand next season. Hardness lessens turf stand.